Snow Storms

Was thinking about snow storms and I was wondering if there is one storm in particular that has impacted you. Positive or Negative. Maybe you were traveling, or just snowed in at home. One of beauty. Your input.

We had a bad ice storm 2 yrs ago first part of December. It shut our town down for 2 weeks,what with trees down and powerlines broke it was a huge mess. We had to stay with my Sister because she has heat and power we didn't.:crazy:

Indiana, Blizzard of "78". Me and some of my highschool buds decided we had had enough of Indiana winter and loaded up in my 69 Nova and headed for Lake Okeechobee Fla. for some fun in the sun. We figured we would just skip for a few days and make up some BS story when we got back. I called my cousin from the hotel to find out that the midwest got burried in snow, no school for the rest of the week. We extended our stay and spent a week on the big lake in Florida and never missed a day of school. We got some funny looks at school when class's resumed and we all had tans in the middle of winter, which was kinda unusual since I dont even think the tanning bed had been invented yet. :smile2:

I remember digging out my moms 69.5 R/S Camero, it was totally buried.

Then I remember delivering "Long Island Newsday " using a sled to pull.

Man I don't miss that, LOL.

Here is some old info on the storm:

Storm strength
The storm's great power was made apparent by its sustained hurricane-force winds of approximately 86 mph with gusts to 111 mph and the formation of an eye-like structure in the middle of the storm.[4] While a typical nor'easter brings steady snow for six to twelve hours, the Blizzard of '78 brought heavy snow for a full 33 hours as it was blocked from heading into the North Atlantic by the strong Canadian high pressure area.[3]

An atypical vertical development of storm clouds brought unusual thundersnow to southern New England and Long Island. These storms resulted in lightning and thunder accompanying the snowfall as it fell at 4 inches (10 cm) an hour at times

The worst I've dealt with was in February 2007. It snowed for 3 days , leaving 28 inches. The city was reduced to a standstill as everyone was forced to walk everywhere. The effect these snows have is amazing. It was eerily quiet at noon. Thousands were without power , and it took a week to restore. The snow itself took about 2 weeks to fully melt.

Don't know if this qualifies or not, but I was stationed at Fort Gordon in '67 and living in Augusta when we got just enough snow to dust the sidewalks pretty good. Being from Missouri, I thought absolutely nothing of it but the locals went beserk. My landlady's kids had never seen snow before and I think half the population was in the same boat. People were sliding into each other and anything else that happened to get in their way. The whole town pratically shut down and my wife and I freaked. Turned out to be the first snow they had seen in quite a number of years. It was certainly one experience I'll remember forever. Stay safe and enjoy the upcoming Holidays!!!:wink:

In 1979 I was a milkman in 3 towns. It snowed pretty good, seemed every Friday there was snow. One Thursday I was delivering milk, it was cold and windy I had to drive 11 miles to the town, I got there and delivered all day in town, I didn't to the country route, but in the grocery stores I heard about people stranded and not dressed for the cold, people were trying to rescue them. When it was time to leave I was heading out of town and it was blocked by a grader and truck. About that time a car was coming into town so one of them moved to let it in. I got past them at that time. It was 8 miles to the next town and I got there, the snow was blowing so bad I just drove with my marker lights on and looked for the white lines in the middle of the road. I got to the next town and stopped in the liquor store for news, the road out of town was blocked by a drift about 10 or so ft high. Someone had a tractor with a snow blower on it blowing a path thru it to pull a car with someone in it on the other end. That drift usually is only about a foot or two, and a hundred yards long, but this one was 10 ft and about 1/4 mile long. When they got thru I went out there right away and it was already blown in about 4-6 inches. I could see the cut wasn't straight and the visibility was real bad. I decided not to risk it, I didn't want to get stuck in there and buried. I went to a friends house and banged on the door but he couldn't hear me due to the wind. I called another guy about 3-4 miles south of town and he said I could stay there. I got stuck in the snow in an intersection and had to dig out. It was pretty windy, and really cold. I got to his place, and got stuck in the ditch turning into his drive. He couldn't hear me, even tho my muffler was ripped off. I got outa there and went in the house, the next morning it was 29 below zero and still windy but the snow had stopped. My mom was calling about people needing milk, but the roads weren't plowed anyway. I couldn't get my truck started until afternoon, and made 2 deliveries. That one kinda scared me, but I been thru a lot of them, in winter I usually carry a sleeping bag and space blanket to help stay warm, and coveralls. I drove cross country and Donner pass was closed but opened up just before I got there, and the traffic was gone, but the pass closed again after I got thru. I been in the middle of somewhere in Wyoming and pulled off to sleep at an exit ramp. I woke up to a loudspeaker and a snow plow truck was driving by on the highway so I thought I heard the guy say something about the road closing so I took off, that was back in the 55 mph days, so driving cross country was a long trip. I started driving all the way to CA before I stopped again. I always try to make sure I got enough gas that I can keep the motor idling to keep warm until someone comes by if I get stuck.

When I was in school I used to like it cause we could get a few days off school.

1985 I was living in a 1930's rock house ,The only heat in that little ranch house was an Ashley wood burning stove. It snowed 36" on the level,and my 2 wheel drive pickup was buried under a snowdrift that extended 100 yards. I lived about 1/4 mile from a secondary highway,but it was 1/2 mile by the road. I remember waking the next morning and seeing ICE in the toilet bowl[temps below0] and water froze. Walking to the highway to meet my folks to carry gallon jugs of water and groceries to the house. I was snowed in for 6 days.

When my husband was gone the first time, we got hit HARD with the winter weather. The fort completely lost power, i was lucky to be in the houseing area where power was restored first..i ended up having 4 kids and 3 adults in my little house, my firends had to stay for over a week because they were having so much trouble getting lines back up because of them just snapping the next night. But when you dont have the tv, computer, microwave, stove, nothing, you really start to think what things mean. But thank god for a charcole grill and always haveing charcole around...everyone staying with me was able to eat!!

Last year there was a snowstorm that wasnt supposed to hit us at all and it suddenly moved and there was only like four hours warning...so most people didnt even know before it hit. I spent the whole weekend snowmobiling...IT was great. For most im sure it was rough but for me and other with snowmobiles two foot of snow when your not expecting it is amazingly good news!

I remember the big snow of 78 but I was in school so it was great.lol
Last years ice storm was something else , my power was out for 12 days and that was close to the city limits.At the farm it was out for almost 21 days.I have added some phone pics , it is hard to see the amount of power lines that were down.Some were only inches from the ground as well.
Luckily I was layed off so it wasn't to bad.My parents were without electricity as well so I moved in with them for a week until their power got restored.I had a Mr. Heater propane heater that could be used indoors and I also brought my camping stove.It was a great time being with them , no tv or computers.Everyone sitting in the living room with nothing more than coal oil lamps.I know I heard alot of stories of days gone by.It was a blessing that I will not soon forget.They own about a three acre lot in town.It took almost four days to get the debris up from their yard.The woods to this day are filled with the tops that was broken out from last winter.

Attached Files:

Only storm that completely stop me was in Greenland, 1955. We were on temporary duty on top of a mountain north of Thule AFB, Greenland. The 10 mile unpaved road going up the mountain had emergency shelters every 1/4 mile for the weather could change in minutes. The driver that took us up the mountain said those shelters could save ones life in a storm. At that time I couldn't imagine the weather could change so fast that the shelters needed to be that close together.

On top of the mountain was a radar station with about 50 full time people. Eight of us had been sent there to erect radio towers. We were working outside about a quarter mile from the radar station. Near by was a small building that housed the transmitters. There were normally two operators on duty and had emergency rations for two people in case of a storm. A bad storm rolled in and we were lucky to make it to the transmitter building. The eight of us spent the rest of the day and that night as quest of the two operators. Luckily the storm broke the next day. We were all ready for some chow. Thule told us it was a Phase 1 storm, that meant winds were around 100 MPH.

Below is a picture of the small transmitter building. All buildings on the mountain and at Thule were guyed down with steel cables. The other picture is the radar station.

Blizzard of 78. This pic is from 2 blocks from my moms house, on a main road. The guy was not found for 7 days. He survived eating a candy bar and happened to have a broom in his truck and was able to shove a breathing hole thru his roof.

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when i lived in champaign, il was driving to mt vernon for christmas, and a good snowstorm came up. in central illinois, it is so flat, in a good snow, a wind gust can make the road totally disappear. it took me about 5 hours to drive 200 miles

I don't remember the year (70s?), but in North Alabama the weather man had predicted 1/2 inch. It was snowing so hard that every time the weatherman changed the forecast it was already deeper than he predicted. Ended up waist deep on us kids!